This fireball, estimated to to be visual magnitude -14, was photographed by Hamid Reza Barzegar over the city of Arak in central Iran during the 1999 Leonid meteor storm. At its peak during the early morning hours of November 18, 1999, meteors were observed at a rate of 2500 per hour. This image, taken with a 28 mm lens, is a 30 second exposure on Fuji 100 negative film.

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Report on the 1999 Leonid meteor storm
by Babak A.Tafreshi
Editor at Nojum (Astronomy magazine of Iran)

WHAT A SHOWER!

From old times, people believed when they see a meteor they can have a wish , But on the Morning of Nov. 18 . We were run out of wishes!

Our sight was somewhere 200km south of Tehran, 60km Far From any light on the roof of ancient place called pallace of Bahram, in the Middle of desert. Close to 1:50am UT on Nov.18 the ZHR reached Highest level of 2500. It seems that we missed the first pick at 1:55 AM with ZHR of 3500 Because of Morning light. We started sky watching From the night before (Nov. 16/17), No great leonid, But few Woo-Making Geminid fireballs! On the night of Nov.17 Nothing happened until 2.30 AM the day after. The ZHR ircreased very fast and the pick was sharp. Sky above us was not crystal clear But a bit hazy. Most of the Meteors were white Magnitude 1-4. Altough There were also dazzling Fireballs in ursa Major and orion (Magnitude -4 to -9). The best picture we have recieved up to now got 20 and green point in radiant. Look forward we will send it to you. The amazing point of the shower was every 5 to 10 minutes or so we had Couple of great Meteors all over the sky and then it Cooled down until another pick. It seems.that this year leonid stream got many Narrow parralel Bands.another point was a speciality of radiant.it was not very focused, very vast in few degrees. We can call this year's shower Baby storm, But still not Comparable to last year's Background stream with those unforgetable Fireballs over Iran lovely lands.